Feb. 26, 2016

 Warm Up
 Interwar Notes/Discussion
 Video
 Students will be able to describe the impact the
League of Nations and the Depression has on the
world and the rise of dictators.
Every European country is suffering economically.
Only the US and Japan came out of the war in better
financial shape than before.

Why would the US and Japan be better off
economically after the war?
Neither had been a wartime battlefield.
Both expanded their trade during the war.
Europe’s dominance in the world had
declined and the long brutal fighting had
drained the continent’s resources.
1919-1939
League of Nations

 Born June 28,1919
 Goal: collective security and peaceful settlements
 Disarmament, Diplomacy, Cooperation
 Outlined in Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points
 US NEVER JOINS THE LEAGUE
 What are 2 issues with the League identified in these
political cartoons
Mandate System

What is this describing?

Causes of the Great
Depression

1. German Reparations – had borrowed money to fund
WWI and was forced to pay back damages in GOLD
2. US Dominance of the Global Economy- when US
had issues (Stock Market Crash), it affected the rest
of the world
3. High Protective Tariffs by the US and other nations
Causes of Depression
(continued)

4. Excessive expansion of credit
- people were able to buy stocks with as little as
which is the equivalent to gambling with
borrowed money
5. Stock Market Crash of 1929
- Market drops 22% with $30 billion lost
- will not bounce back until 1954
Impact of Worldwide
Depression

 HIGH unemployment in all industrialized nations
 Bank failure and collapse of credit
 Collapse of prices in world trade
 Nazi Party’s growing importance in Germany and
blaming Jews for collapse

German Inflation

Benito Mussolini

Ultimate portrayal of Fascism
Fought in WWI with the Entente when Italy
switched sides in 1915
Mussolini tried to save Italy from “Class Warfare”
Formed Black Shirts
Goal was to maintain order in Italy
Interrupted Communist parades with force
Government did not interfere with them…why?
Mussolini (continued)

 March on Rome
 Coup d’etat
 Overthrew King Victor Emmanuel III in a 3 day
march on Rome
 Wanted to return the glory of Rome
 Invasion of Ethiopia 1935
 Wanted Empire
 Europe denounced attack
 Used mustard gas (BANNED 10 years ago)
 Italy and Ethiopia were both members of the League
of Nations
Attack in Ethiopia

ITALY
TROOPS:...500,000
TANKS: ………800
PLANES:……...600
DEATHS: …….500
ETHIOPIA
………800,000
……………...3
……………...0
………275,000
Joseph Stalin “The Man
of Steel” and the USSR
 At this point, the USSR was 
entrenched in Communism
 Stalin wanted to rapidly industrialize and modernize
 Five Year Plan
 Agricultural quotas (collectivization of farms)
 Rapid industrialization – state seized everything
 NO PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
 Many were overworked and died
 How was this different from Lenin’s NEP?
Stalin’s Reign (How did
he stay in power?)

 Indoctrination of the people through Propaganda
(Pravda)
 Great Purge: Stalin executed his political enemies
and many leaders from the Bolshevik Revolution
(October/ November Revolution)
Adolf Hitler (The
Fuhrer) & Germany

Hitler: The Role of the
Depression

 Germany had borrowed all of their money to fund
WWI
 Had to pay back reparations in GOLD
 Germans printed more money which led to
HYPERINFLATION
Failure of Democracy in the
Weimar Republic 1919-1933

 Treaty of Versailles claimed that Germany had to
have a Democratic government
 Appointed a beloved WWI hero as President
 Communists and Nazis both hated the government
(and each other)
 Blamed the Weimar Republic for WWI loss and bad
economy
 Nicknamed “November Criminals”
 Many attempted to overthrow Weimar- Hitler tried
and failed in 1923
National Socialism (Nazism)
back for centuries
Founded in 1919- roots go
Beliefs
Extreme nationalism
Strong government under Furher (leader)
Anti-minority (especially Jews)- Anti-Semetism
Anti-Democracy (gives voice to minority)
Militarism
Hierarchy of race with “Aryans” at the top
Anti-communist
Hitler gains control of this party in 1921
The Rise of Hitler

 Beer Hall Putsh (1923) tried to
overthrow Weimar Republic
 Wrote Mein Kampf while in prison
(1925-26)
 Reichstag Fire February 1933 –
allowed Hitler to come to power
 Enabling Act March 1933
 Nuremberg laws 1935 (antiSemetic laws)
Hideki Tojo and Hirohito

Japan

 1854: Matthew Perry opens Japan up to the West
 1868: Meiji Restoration – Japan gets rid of Tokugawa
Shogunate which leads to rapid industrialization
and modernization
 1930s Militarization
 Leaders were descendants of the Samurai
 Universal military conscription
 Led push for invasions
Japan’s Modernization

 1931: Japan is in need of natural resources
 Japan invades China
 League of Nations does nothing
 1940: Japan needs more raw materials – Japan invades
Vietnam
 American Response: cutoff Japan’s supply of scrap
metal, oil, and froze assets in US
 Closed Panama Canal
 Japan’s Prime Minister resigns and the top general is
appointed
Hideki Tojo

 Japanese General
 Leads attacks of Mongolia and Manchuria
 Responsible for Pearl Harbor attacks
 Emperor Hirohito is powerless
Reflection

 How did WWI directly and indirectly cause the
issues seen in the interwar period?
 Out of all of the dictators, who do you feel is the
“most evil”? Use some sort of way of determining
this and be prepared to defend your POV.